Expedition finds another place where Dyatlov Group bodies could be

YEKATERINBURG, August 12. /TASS/. During a new expedition to the Dyatlov Pass in the Northern Urals, searchers found another location, where bodies of the Dyatlov Group, which got missing back in 1959, could be, head of the Dyatlov Group Memory Public Fund Yuri Kuntsevich told TASS on Friday.

"One of our participants in the expedition, as he was taking a picture of the place, where according to documents were bodies of the Group, noticed the place did not match the earlier pictures," he said. "For example, the tree we see in the pictures is not there. We have found another place, which resembles more the well-known descriptions, and there is the very pine tree that we see in the pictures - now it is lying on the ground, all covered with moss."

The searchers plan to study the area with metal detectors. "My opinion, this area will bring more to the research," he said. "We should use metal detectors to check this area, at least around this tree. I would not rule out the coordinates of the bodies, which are in the case, are not correct."

He continued, saying during the expedition the searchers found an earlier secret aerodrome not far from the place, where the Dyatlov Group died. "It is unrelated to the incident. We also took tests of the soil to be used in further work on a tourist route to the pass," he said. "It would be good, if this territory is improved, as now nothing is organized there, though tourists from many countries are visiting those areas."

The expedition, which began on August 1, featured 14 people from Moscow, Yekaterinburg, Chelyabinsk, Ozersk, Snezhinsk, Ufa, Lesnoye, and Samara. Among participants there are biologists, fishers, hunters, loggers and even school pupils.

Dyatlov Pass today

The Dyatlov Pass is still an attraction for tourists and researchers from all over the world. Risking their lives, people again and again are trying to solve the Dyatlov Group "mystery" or to try their abilities. Every year, rescuers have to search for tourists who lose the route or to evacuate those unable to finish a trip. For example, a woman from the Urals’ Yekaterinburg began a solo journey in June, but later on communication with her was lost. Rescuers headed to help her out, but it turned out she did not require any assistance - she had written a wrong return date.

In June also, a man from Chelyabinsk got injured as he rode an ATV in the Dyatlov Pass area. A Mi-8 helicopter took off to pick him up, but could not land in the mountains, and the injured was taken aboard on hard stretchers by winches. In February, 2016, rescuers found at the pass body of a man who tried to get on his own to a Buddhist monastery.

A month earlier, on January 13, people found at the Dyatlov Pass body of a 47 year-old man from Chelyabinsk, who came from Kazakhstan. A source at the local emergency services told TASS the man had lived on his own for a long time near the Dyatlov Pass.

Dyatlov Group mystery

The mountain pass was named after Dyatlov, the head of the expedition, which planned to ascend to the 1,079-meter summit in the Sub-Arctic Urals. Dyatlov and the other eight members of his group died at the pass near Otorten Mountain during the early morning hours of February 2, 1959 under mysterious circumstances. The expedition members were found frozen to death with numerous signs of bodily injuries and without outdoor clothes or footwear. Eventually, dozens of versions arose as to what happened at the mountain pass, including completely bizarre theories of an attack by an abominable snowman or an encounter with aliens.

According to the official forensic study, most of the hikers froze to death but some were found with serious injuries that caused their death. Various versions of the incident were considered, including an avalanche hitting their tent, an attack by fugitive prisoners, their deaths from an attack by the indigenous Mansi inhabitants or even a brawl among the group members.

A memorial plaque was inaugurated on July 19 in Solikamsk, in the Ural’s Perm Region, dedicated to Yuri Yudin, the expedition’s tenth member who had survived. During the hiking, he had to leave the group after an acute pain in his leg, which helped make him the solely surviving member of the Dyatlov group. He was the first to identify the personal belongings of the dead expedition members. Up until his last days, he maintained close contacts with the researchers investigating the causes of the Dyatlov group’s deaths.

The Dyatlov Group Memory Fund has been in existence since July 2000. The Fund has been carrying out its own investigation over all these years into the causes of the Dyatlov group’s deaths, constantly replenishing its archive with new first-hand data from friends, searching participants and other eye-witnesses who have kept silent for many years.